Blood Orange

A review of Fruit #5 on my quest for trying a new fruit every week.

Uniqueness: The blood orange has a slight bit deeper-colored peel than a normal orange, but its interiors are a deep and violent red (which is what attracted me to it at the market). And seeing as you feel like you're eating bloodied chicken embryos (there is an uncanny resemblance) when ripping into pieces of the blood orange, I'd say it's definitely a unique kind of experience.

I was puzzled by why the blood orange received this name, thinking it was simply because it is a much deeper red than your typical orange (to the point of being almost magenta in tone). But after gnawing on one, I realized why.

The sight of someone feasting on the flesh of the blood orange could almost be mistaken for someone gorging on raw or undercooked meat--the pieces of orange actually HAVE a very raw meat-like resemblance to them, tiny little veins of gold rippling through each bright red, dripping piece. And the juice WILL pour down your fingertips like blood and stain them red--it is a very zombie-esque experience most definitely. Being vegetarian, I felt very primal eating it, like I was a weird veggie caveman, violently sinking my teeth into a bloody mess of fruit. *GROWR*

Flavor and consistency: It tastes a bit like watered-down Koolaid. Nothing real impressive. Kind of a bland boring aftertaste. The consistency is typical of an orange, though maybe a bit less compact and a slight bit mushier.

Ease of consumption: About the same as a regular orange, though a tiny bit messier due to the fact that a) the pieces are a bit mushier and less compact than an orange (though this may just be because I suck at taking apart oranges), and b) it will drip everywhere and the blood-red drippage will stain your fingers red.

Complaints: Just that it's a bit bland.

Other things to note: It seemed a bit less pulpy than your typical orange, and the pulp was a lot easier to chew.

Overall: It was cool and messy and bloody and bizarre to eat, but the flavor just didn't do it for me. Which is too bad, because I typically avoid oranges because of the chewy pulp bits, but this didn't have much of that. Had it been just a bit more flavorful, it would've made an excellent snack.